FUGITIVE businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia by a Kuwaiti court on money laundering charges.

According to a report in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas, four other people involved in the case were also sentenced to 10 years in prison, and a Kuwaiti lawyer was given seven years’ jail time.

The newspaper identified the foreigners as Low and French-Syrian businessman Bachar Kiwan, but did not name the others involved.

It is alleged the defendants were ordered to return US$1 billion (RM4.4 billion) in addition to paying fines totalling 145 million Kuwaiti dinar (RM2 billion).

Sarawak Report alleged the “Malaysian fund” was 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The portal also identified one of the defendants as Sheikh Sabah Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, who is the son of Kuwait’s former prime minister. 

Another was identified as Low’s associate Hamad Al Wazan, and the lawyer as Saud Abdelmohsan. 

Al-Qabas reported those involved were accused of laundering Chinese currency equivalent to 343.7 million Kuwaiti dinar (RM4.95 billion), knowing they were illegal proceeds embezzled from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.

In 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported Malaysian investigators had uncovered a money trail from China to a Chinese bank in Kuwait and onward to the Cayman Islands.

It said the entity controlled by Low was allegedly used to pay nearly US$1 billion for Low-controlled assets in Malaysia to pay 1MDB debts.

Last year, Putrajaya said there was no information on Low’s whereabouts despite two active Interpol red notices for his arrest.

“Besides Malaysia, Singapore also filed charges against Low in 2016 and obtained a red notice from Interpol in the same year,” the Home Ministry said in a written reply to parliament. 

“The United States has also filed charges against him in courts in New York in 2018, and has issued a warrant of arrest.”

An Interpol red notice is a request issued to law enforcement worldwide to locate fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence, pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. – March 29, 2023.